Posts Tagged ‘Guns N Roses’

Okay, so I’ll be the first to admit that I was a little high on
the GNR juice (and maybe a few other things) when I wrote this.

It’s a review of the “Chinese Democracy World Tour” that hit the
Tacoma Dome in 2002 that I wrote for the UW Daily while in college.
It is one of my earliest concert reviews and I almost stand by
everything I said six years ago when it was written.

I will say that Axl Rose is possibly the best rock frontman I
have ever seen perform. He put on an amazing show six years ago and
to this day it is still in my top 10 favorite shows I have seen
(and I’ve seen hundreds of shows throughout my career as a music
critic). Here’s what college me had to say about the show (from the
UW Daily archives):

Welcome back to the jungle: Axl Rose
returns

By Travis Hay
November 14, 2002

In its first North American tour in nine years, estranged metal
rockers Guns N’ Roses rocked the Tacoma Dome last Friday with an
explosive performance in front of thousands of eager fans.

However, the night’s festivities were not intended to begin the
tour. The Nov. 8 Tacoma show was originally scheduled to be the
group’s second show on the tour, but the first show never
happened.

In typical Axl Rose style, the tour’s first show scheduled for
the night before in Vancouver, B.C., got cancelled after event
promoters said Rose was a no-show. The cancellation led to rioting
concertgoers, the second Canadian riot caused by the band in a
decade, making the Tacoma show the impromptu first performance of
the North American tour.

During the band’s near decade-long hiatus, Rose rebuilt Guns N’
Roses from scratch, creating another rock tour de force, making the
band bigger, louder and more powerful. After Rose felt comfortable
with his creation, the band resurfaced for its first major public
appearance earlier this year at the MTV Video Music Awards. There,
the transfigured GN’R played a well-received three-song set. This
resurrection of a rock n’ roll giant set the stage for what
possibly was the biggest night in Tacoma Dome history. After a
45-minute wait between opening acts, Guns N’ Roses took the stage
with a powerful, energy-filled version of “Welcome to the Jungle.”
The crowd, filled with the usual suspects — women in fishnet
stockings with bangs teased high as heaven, and guys with mullets
wearing wifebeaters and torn acid-washed jeans — roared with
approval.

The band kept the classics coming, with a crowd-pleasing set
list filled with GN’R staples like: “It’s So Easy,” “Live and Let
Die,” “Mr. Brownstone,” “My Michelle,” “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “You
Could Be Mine, “November Rain,” “Nightrain,” “Rocket Queen” and
others filling out the performance.

Three new songs appeared in the middle of the two-and-a-half
hour set, including “Madagascar,” “Rhiad” and “Chinese Democracy,”
the latter of the three being the loudest and heaviest song,
definitely reminiscent of material from 1987’s Appetite For
Destruction. “Madagascar,” is a softer, more harmonious ballad,
which brought out the lighters in force. All three songs show great
potential for the highly anticipated Chinese Democracy, expected to
be released sometime early next year.

In his return to the stage, Rose brought seven band mates to
fill the shoes of his old Guns buddies. He hand-picked a cast of
musicians with varying musical experiences to form a lineup that
includes Richard Fortus, Robin Finck (Nine Inch Nails) and
Buckethead on guitars, Tommy Stinson (the Replacements) on bass,
Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman playing keyboards, and Brian Mantia
(Primus) drumming.

This method of addition by subtraction, replacing the four
original members with seven new ones, worked out masterfully in
Rose’s favor, matching, if not bettering, the technical prowess the
old lineup was famous for.

The three guitarists did their best to make fans forget about
ex-guitarist Slash’s sonic brilliance, nailing their solos
perfectly while adding their own touches in the process.

However, the show didn’t go off without its share of glitches.
Microphone feedback issues plagued what would have otherwise been a
perfect start to a welcome-back tour. After the show, a
spokesperson from the band’s management group said Rose blew out
his vocal cords during the performance trying to compensate for the
mic difficulties. However, the blown vocal cords were not apparent
in the set, as he bellowed, screeched and wailed lyrics in his
famous high-pitched, screaming-banshee style.

Perhaps the most surprising part of the evening wasn’t that Rose
showed up, or that the new band almost sounded better than the
classic lineup, the most surprising aspect of the night was the
crowd. Rose’s new band’s coming-out party took place before a
sparsely filled T-Dome crowd of slightly more than 6,000.

While GN’R’s glory days are long past and primadonna antics were
at a minimum in Tacoma, the triumphant return of one of rock’s
original bad boys coupled with rioting Canadians proves one thing:
It’s Axl’s jungle, we just live in it.

Billboard is reporting Axl Rose’s “Chinese Democracy” record
will be released Nov. 23 and will be sold exclusively at Best
Buy.

This of course begs the question of whether everyone in the
country will get
a free Dr. Pepper as promised by the folks at Dr. Pepper.

I’ve heard some of the leaked material and back in 2002 I saw
some new songs performed live at the Tacoma Dome (it was one of the
most awesome concert experiences of my life) and I’ll say that if
what I’ve heard is “Chinese Democracy” then I’m not that impressed.
The material isn’t all that bad, but it really isn’t exceptionally
good.

My prediction is that Pitchfork will give the record a snarky
4.2 rating and Rolling Stone will rate it at a 3.5 and call it
Axl’s way of attempting to forge new ground musically while staying
to the Gus N Roses formula that he’s been successful with in the
past.

I’ll also go out on a limb and say the record will sell a whole
bunch of copies, especially since it is being sold at Best Buy
around Thanksgiving time and that the tour behind the record will
flop because fans will realize the record isn’t all that good.